<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Adventures in Amortentia by queenhoneebee</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26739646">Adventures in Amortentia</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenhoneebee/pseuds/queenhoneebee'>queenhoneebee</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>hogwarts in the 70s [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Amortentia, Multi, jily, wolfstar</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 10:42:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,066</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26739646</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenhoneebee/pseuds/queenhoneebee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>in which an interesting potions class brews results that make hearts flutter</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>hogwarts in the 70s [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1926835</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>126</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Adventures in Amortentia</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Inspired by Tumblr users: tranxfiguration ; propercy ; and thosepleadingeyes</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Adventures in Amortentia</b>
</p><p>Seventh Year, Third Person</p><p> </p><p>In all of his years of teaching, Horace Slughorn had always appreciated one distinct potions lesson over the others. Sure, there were some great ones: Everlasting Elixirs, Felix Felicis, otherwise known as Liquid Luck, Veritaserum, and the Elixir to Induce Euphoria.</p><p>One stood far above the others.</p><p>Amortentia. The most powerful love potion in the world.</p><p><em>Amortentia</em>, defined as: <em>distinctive for its mother-of-pearl sheen, and steam ris</em><em>ing</em><em> from the potion in spirals. Amortentia smells different to each person, according to what attracts them. It causes a powerful infatuation or obsession from the drinker. It's considered to be a powerful and highly dangerous potion. As stated, it's dangerous to underestimate a powerful infatuation. Despite its power, Amortentia doesn't create actual love; it's impossible to manufacture or imitate love. The person under the effect of the potion will only hold an obsession for the person who administered it.</em></p><p>It always seemed to be the lesson where Horace learned things of his students that they were most times personally unaware of. And when he woke up that morning to his normal breakfast of oatmeal, he somehow knew that the seventh years of 1978 would prove some of the most interesting students to undertake this particular potion. It was not necessarily all that complicated, but it was reserved for Advanced Potions of those in sixth year and above for its psychological properties.</p><p>Known colloquially among students as the love potion, the effect might be much different on the first years who knew nothing of love aside from in the familial sense. Seventh years, however, were a whole different kettle of fish. They were curious, and thought themselves adults despite being far from it. However, old and somewhat mature enough to rise to the occasion and take on this particular challenge.</p><p>"If you'll open your textbooks to page one hundred and seven, you'll find the instructions for this particular brew. Every ingredient listed can be found within the classroom, but I do suggest you collect and lay out your ingredients prior to brewing your potions as some steps can be time sensitive. Now, also, for this particular potion I shall be assigning your partners."</p><p>The room let out a collective low groan, to which Horace purely grinned.</p><p>"I know, I know," he said, raising his hands to call for a silence. "Please trust that I have my own reasoning. As some of you may have realized upon reading the title of this potion, it requires a keen sense of smell. It is for this reason that I'll be assigning partners that you would not necessarily associate with as you will need a somewhat unfamiliar environment to lessen the chances of creating competing and confusing scents."</p><p>The grumbling throughout the class continued. This information was in fact pure bullshit, but it was Horace's greatest joy to keep his students on their toes. In his opinion, it allowed for the most unique teaching environment and forced his students to excel in unfamiliarity. That, and it was funny to eavesdrop on the conversations between the partners whom Horace <em>knew</em> hated each other, whom he had placed together purely for his own amusement.</p><p>"So, without further ado, our partners include: Jade Merson and Katherine Fox. Andrea Benton and Sirius Black. Remus Lupin and Severus Snape. Olivia Stanford and Jack Raven. Peter Pettigrew and Charles Fisher. James Potter and Lily Evans. Matthew Phillips and Daniel Rogers. Please find yourselves a cauldron to share and begin when ready. You have the remaining two hours of this class to prepare your best interpretation of this potion."</p><p>The class size was small, as were most specialized advanced classes in the senior years of Hogwarts. It allowed for Lily Evans' gaze to snap towards James Potter with a glare the moment that they'd been paired together.</p><p><em>Of course</em> this was her luck. <em>Of course</em> she'd been paired with the most useless of partners in the field of advanced potions.</p><p>That, and Lily revered James Potter as generally useless in all areas of expertise aside from Quidditch and - begrudgingly - transfiguration. But in everything else, including dating, James Potter was seriously lacking in skill. Lily did not even <em>want</em> to think about the disaster that was their Hogsmeade date three weeks ago.</p><p>She had spent the days since trying to avoid James Potter where she could. But now... avoidance seemed impossible.</p><p>Cue: sigh.</p><p>He hadn't paid her much attention in the weeks since their date, either, despite being her partner as Head students and the duties that the job entailed. She didn't blame him. She'd be embarrassed too if she'd asked a girl on a date, only for the date to be ruined by a large black dog barreling through them and giving the girl a black eye from knocking her over. And then if she'd also proceeded to laugh as if in on an inside joke that said date was definitely not in on.</p><p>Her bruise had only just died down, too.</p><p>Lily stood in place, watching Potter warily as he wandered over to her usual cauldron. He scratched at the back of his neck awkwardly as he tried to avoid her gaze. He was especially making an effort not to stare too hard at the skin around her eye that had only <em>just</em> returned to normal.</p><p>When his hand retreated to his side, he knocked his glasses for a moment, fumbling as he tried to keep them secured to his face. Lily struggled not to roll her eyes as her arms crossed over her chest.</p><p>"Well... let's get this over with then, I guess," she muttered. "I'll go get the ingredients. You set up the cauldron space."</p><p>James nodded sheepishly, turning away from her and making himself busy with his hands. Lily sighed as she walked away. She already knew she was going to end up doing most of this herself. After all, everyone knew James was only taking Advanced Potions because it was a prerequisite for his dream job as an Auror.</p><p>Piling the ingredients she had memorized from the page into her arms, she made her way back to her cauldron. James – to his credit – had organised everything else they'd be needing, into a neat order on the table for easy access.</p><p>His eyes were on the textbook when she organised the ingredients into the spare spaces on the table, though.</p><p>"The Etymology of a name: as important as the brew itself," James recited, his eyes on the page and his voice filling the silence so as not to make it awkward. He had to have known that he was making it worse, though, right? "Amortentia is derived from two Latin words. <em>Amor</em> for the Roman god of love and <em>Tentia</em> for 'held'. Huh. Interesting, I guess," he shrugged.</p><p>Lily rolled her eyes with a sigh. She was frustrated at her pairing, and couldn't help but make it known. "Can we just get on with this?"</p><p>James frowned slightly at her impatience and her unwillingness to look into his eyes, but eventually nodded slowly. "...Sure."</p><p>Lily nodded. The sooner she could finish this potion, the sooner she could get the hell out of that classroom and away from this boy who had proven to her that he was as immature as she'd always thought. She knew she was letting her emotions run her life, and skew her attitude due to her memories of their horrid date, and she knew deep down that she was being rude, but Lily Evans could not find a single fuck to give about that.</p><p>"In a medium sized cauldron, begin melting 3 oz. of glacial ice over a low flame," James began. Lily followed his instructions dutifully. Lily hated to admit it, but they actually made an okay team. God forbid if she'd said that out loud, she'd never have lived it down.</p><p>
  <em>While the ice is melting, dice three cherry blossoms and four pomegranate seeds first length-wise, then width-wise, until made into a pulp. Combine slowly with the melting ice and stir once.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Next, drop one Ashwinder egg into your cauldron. These serpent eggs are a common ingredient in most love potions. You can buy these by the dozen in any magic store.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Once the egg is thawed and combined naturally, add in a handful of rose thorns. Be careful as these sometimes have sharp edges.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Next, lower the flame further and add a drop of peppermint oil. The brew should produce four large bubbles at the edges of the cauldron.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Once the last of the four bubbles has popped, drop in one moonstone that has been recharged over the last three full moons.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Stir the concoction six times clockwise, not allowing your spindle to touch the rim of the cauldron. If brewed correctly, the potion should produce spiral</em>
  <em>-</em>
  <em>like steam curlews and the surface should represent a sheen likened to a mother of pearl.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Turn off the flame and let cool. While cooling, inhalation of steam will produce the beginning effects of the potion, however drinking the brew will create the longer effects of attraction.</em>
</p><p>It has a different aroma for everyone who smells it, reminding each person of the things that they find most attractive, even if the person doesn't acknowledge or is unaware of their fondness for the object of their affection themselves.</p><p>The effects of the potion on a person are described to be near instantaneous; with the person who drinks the potion appearing 'pale and sickly' and becoming obsessed with the object of their affections, speaking of them as though 'hit by a ray of purest sunlight' and becoming excited or dangerously unstable towards others.</p><p>The potion must be administered continuously in order to maintain the false love in the drinker. Otherwise, the effects will wear off and the victim would regain their own free will.</p><p>Lily extinguished the flame beneath the cauldron, allowing it to cool. She found herself mesmerized by the curlews of steam rising above the brew. They were pretty, in a way.</p><p>"Now, students!" Slughorn called from the opposite end of the classroom. "I encourage you to take a whiff of the rising steam and jot down the aromas that are uncovered with your keen senses."</p><p>James, ever the impatient one, lent over the cauldron to inhale deeply. <em>So much for ladies first</em>, Lily thought to herself as she rolled her eyes.</p><p>"I cant smell a damn thing!" James frowned, frustrated as he pulled away. Lily's jaw dropped.</p><p>"Well, that's impossible! I'm 110% sure I got this right!" she said indignantly, leaning over to take a look at the potion. It matched the description in the textbook perfectly, and unless he'd given her the wrong instructions, she'd followed them to the letter.</p><p>"Well, obviously not," James muttered, turning away from her. Lily rolled her eyes and instead lent over the cauldron to sniff at the potion herself.</p><p>She frowned when she came away with nothing. Her nose wrinkled with confusion.</p><p>"I don't get it," she muttered, more to herself than anyone else. "Maybe it's not instantaneous? Maybe it takes a minute or two to work?"</p><p>James shook his head, though she had been talking out loud, it wasn't necessarily directed at <em>him</em>.</p><p>"No, the book explicitly says that 'the effects of the potion on a person are described to be near instantaneous'–"</p><p>Lily waved her hand dismissively. "No, that's if you drink it. The book doesn't say anything about how fast the smell is supposed to work you over."</p><p>Lily lent over the cauldron again, hoping for a different result. <em>Wasn't that the definition of insanity?</em> She thought to herself: <em>doing the same thing again and again and expecting a new outcome?</em></p><p>Lily shook her head with frustration, letting out a quiet sigh. She didn't know why it wasn't working. When she looked up, James was wearing that god forsaken troublemaker smirk that she despised so much. She used to take amusement in that smirk, but after their disastrous date, it seemed that everything he did seemed to piss her right off.</p><p>"Come on, Evans, let's be honest here. Tell the truth. I know you smell my manly, musky scent. Do you want to know why?–" James drawled, leaning on his elbow on the table top.</p><p>Lily glared his way. Case in point. He was getting on her last nerve.</p><p>"No," she hissed.</p><p>"–Because you're in love with me, it's obvious," James shrugged, grinning. Lily scoffed. This shit was so far out of left field, and she knew he was only saying these things to get under her skin. He really <em>was</em> just that cruel. Lily was beginning to think that her ill-advised crush on him – due to the sweet things she'd seen him do over the years – was completely over, and had never been anything more than her mind conflating her need for affection.</p><p>"Look, Potter," she hissed. "Do you really want to know what I smell in the Amortentia?"</p><p>James grinned, leaning closer to her. "Please, do tell."</p><p>"Nothing!" she glared at him. "Well, perhaps I <em>could</em> actually smell something if you didn't use buckets of conditioner this morning."</p><p>James rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't be one to talk. The amount of rose perfume you are wearing is giving me an asthma attack."</p><p>Lily's nose wrinkled as they continued bickering back and forth. She made fun of his hair at one point, and his sloppy uniform – it was missing the top button like it had been torn off in a hasty move to get changed and avoid being late to class, <em>again</em>.</p><p>He made fun of her book bag – the one that had been a gift from Petunia before their falling out upon discovering she was a witch. He made fun of the way she bit her lip when she concentrated on whatever she was writing.</p><p>Lily glared at him, trying to conjure up another thing to insult this cocky asshole about, when it hit her... She had run out of her rose perfume last week. There was no way the smell was still lingering on her anywhere at all.</p><p>When she looked up, James had the same look of confused bewilderment on his face as she did.</p><p>He frowned. "Sirius was hogging the bathroom this morning, though," he muttered to himself. Lily didn't think she was meant to hear that. But if Sirius had been hogging the bathroom and James hadn't had time to shower, how could it possibly be that the scent of his coconut conditioner was practically stifling her?</p><p>It couldn't be the... the potion? Could it?</p><p><em>No</em>, Lily mentally slapped herself. <em>That's impossible.</em> There's absolutely no way that she was attracted to that smell. She <em>hated</em> coconuts with a burning passion.</p><p>Lily did not dare approach the thought of what it would mean that she'd possibly smelled James Potter's conditioner in that damned cauldron. When she risked a sheepish confused glance at James, he was wearing the same stunned expression as she. If she dared look close enough, she might even spy the blush creeping up the column of his neck.</p><p>Taking a deep breath and instead steadying her gaze on the potion, she decided to try again. She would force this stupid brew to produce a different smell for her, if it killed her. She would not leave this classroom with the only possible aroma for her being James Perfect Potter's stupid conditioner.</p><p>She lent over the cauldron, inhaling deeply – probably actually a little <em>too</em> deeply – as it almost made her sneeze.</p><p>Then she took a step back, distancing herself from James so that she could make sense of the smells bouncing around her nostrils. Lily closed her eyes to make sense of them.</p><p>"I smell the freshness of new rain, I smell my mother's apple pie, and fresh flour," Lily sighed happily, feeling at ease with these new scents. Then pointedly, she added to her list. "I do NOT smell your sweaty self except for what I normally can smell standing this close to you after your failed attempt at personal hygiene. Do you even know how Amortentia works?" she chided.</p><p>Lily opened her eyes to see him roll his.</p><p>"You smell what you love, Evans," he shrugged, before taking another sniff and standing back as she had. He almost bumped into Charles Fisher in the process, to which Lily had to hide her snicker. "And, let me tell you, I am overwhelmed with lilies," he muttered, frowning.</p><p>Lily felt her eyebrows pull together. She wasn't even going to address the similarity to her name, there. She didn't want to know what it could mean. After all, she was still undeniably pissed with him.</p><p>"You're an idiot," she said soundly. It wasn't an untrue statement. "Why do I bother?" she muttered beneath her breath. Then, "Amortentia doesn't work like that. What you smell isn't reflections of things or people you love, but scents that relax you and put you at peace. For Merlin's sake, Potter, you are the very opposite of relaxing!"</p><p>James eyed her slowly, chewing on his lip at her speech. Then, he looked at her earnestly.</p><p>"So..." he breached. "You could, hypothetically speaking, love someone who makes your breath catch... who makes your heart race and your head spin, but then never smell them in the Amortentia?"</p><p>Stunned at his words and the look in his eyes that accompanied them, Lily could do nothing but utter out a small word of agreement.</p><p>"...Yes," she all but squeaked. Because that look in his eyes was one she'd seen before. Flashing behind her eyes was the expression on his face when Remus had played the middleman at that one fateful breakfast and James had – kind of – asked Lily on that date to Hogsmeade.</p><p>The look he sported in his eyes right then, was the same one that had crept at the edges of his gaze on that morning at breakfast. That sort of nervous excitement and baited curiosity.</p><p>And then those eyes transformed to the ones she knew better. Those mischievous, self-assured ones that made her want to hit him upside the head. She would have done so, too, if she hadn't been able to detect that curious longing that had been there a moment ago.</p><p>The same look that had her rooted in place.</p><p>And then...</p><p>"Do I make your heart race, Evans?" James said lowly, enough for only her to hear in their classroom. Lily could feel her breath catching in her throat. He felt impossibly close to her, even though there was at least two feet of space between them.</p><p>She didn't know what was happening. The potion was affecting her brain, she was sure.</p><p><em>But it wouldn't be, if you didn't feel something for him,</em> her mind reminded her. If she could have shut that thing up, she'd have done it years ago.</p><p><em>Do I make your heart race, Evans?</em> He had asked. A question that was most definitely making her heart thump a poem through her veins.</p><p>"Ummm..." she managed. James took a step forward, closing the space between them as if he didn't care that anyone else in the classroom could still see them.</p><p>And now Lily could see that vulnerable look up close as his voice dropped to an acute whisper – for her ears only.</p><p>"Because you make my heart race, too..."</p><p>§</p><p>Across the classroom, Horace Slughorn was supervising the less potions-inclined students so that they didn't make their cauldron spontaneously combust in his classroom. That would be like the third time it had happened this year, and Slughorn wasn't all that keen to have to be the one to clean it up.</p><p>"Now, students!" he called. "I encourage you to take a whiff of the rising steam and jot down the aromas that are uncovered with your keen senses."</p><p>Beside him, Andrea Benton stood with her partner, Sirius Black. Black was back-to back with Remus Lupin, who's partner, Severus Snape, was wearing the largest of scowls.</p><p>Sirius frowned to himself as he lent over the cauldron. Andrea was a nice enough partner, but he'd had to do most of the work as she made googly eyes at Charles Fisher across the classroom.</p><p>Sirius was used to all the girls fawning over him, but right now, he cared more about passing Potions, so he needed this one to go really well if he was going to have any shot at graduating with his friends.</p><p>Sirius resisted the urge to swear with irritation as he inhaled deeply. "Merlin's sake, Moony," he frowned, bumping his elbow against the boy who stood at his back. "How much chocolate do you have with you? It's all I can bloody smell," he grumbled.</p><p>Remus turned around to eye Sirius.</p><p>"Me?" he muttered. "I can't smell a damned thing over the scent of all those damn cigarettes you've been smoking!"</p><p>Sirius rolled his eyes.</p><p>"That's hardly surprising. They'd be <em>your</em> cigarettes, seeing as that makes up a good 80% of your sustenance..."</p><p>"Hey! You smoke just as much as I do," Remus said indignantly. Sirius just felt his eyes roll as he laughed to himself.</p><p>"Okay. That's a complete lie, but okay," he shrugged. Sirius could practically feel the waves of annoyance rolling off his friend.</p><p>"Piss off. What about you then? What else is attracting you, Sirius? The glass of a mirror? Your entire range of hair-care products?" Remus teased. Sirius just scoffed, flipping the bird over his shoulder.</p><p>"Petrol. Forbidden Forest... and dust?" Sirius nose wrinkled as it tried to determine the different scents.</p><p>Remus chuckled. "Yeah, I'm not even going to <em>attempt</em> to psychoanalyze that one."</p><p>Sirius smirked, though Remus couldn't see it. He took another whiff and his eyes watered slightly. "Okay," he said, turning over his shoulder to look at Remus unsurely. "So, at the risk of sounding really fucking weird... I also smell our dorm room..."</p><p>Remus eyes widened as his jaw dropped. "Is <em>that</em> what that is!?"</p><p>Sirius just laughed as Remus waved a hand through the steam to waft it away from him.</p><p>"Jesus! We really need to clean up a bit more. That's actually vile," Remus muttered, to which Sirius just laughed.</p><p>Then Slughorn clambered his way over.</p><p>"Boys," he drawled. "I trust that we're actually conversing with our assigned partners...?" Slughorn said, eyebrows raised knowingly. Remus had the gall to blush sheepishly, his feet shuffling beneath him as Sirius just grinned.</p><p>He looked over at Andrea, who was sporting a bored look now that Charles wasn't paying her any attention. Remus' partner, Snivellus, was keeping to himself, his nose in his textbook and scribbling something down. He preferred to work alone, anyway, so Sirius hadn't thought it a big deal to talk to Remus.</p><p>"Sorry, Professor," Remus shrugged. Slughorn just smiled knowingly.</p><p>"Alright, well let's see how you've done. What do you smell, Mr. Lupin?"</p><p>Remus leaned over his cauldron once more, inhaling. When he straightened up, he was very much avoiding eye contact with one Sirius Black.</p><p>"Umm..." he muttered quietly. "...Wet dog fur."</p><p>With his eyes on his own cauldron, Sirius could do nothing as he felt himself freeze up. A smirk lifted to his lips as his eyes widened slightly with realization. He heard Slughorn briefly commend his friend for correctly brewing the potion before walking off to supervise another student.</p><p>Sirius was chuckling to himself when he felt Remus kick at his leg. It only made Sirius laugh harder, before a low growl resounded in his throat.</p><p>A flirtatious warning growl he knew that only Remus could register. The other boy scoffed and Sirius could just perfectly imagine the deep blush in his <em>friend's</em> cheeks.</p><p>"Oh, shut up..." Remus muttered, his head shaking. Sirius just grinned before turning his head slightly to whisper over his shoulder. Remus wouldn't meet his eyes, but Sirius knew he was listening.</p><p>"<em>You won't be saying that later tonight</em>..." he couldn't help but quip, his voice low. Remus froze, looking anywhere but at Sirius, before he just rolled his eyes.</p><p>"Yeah, yeah."</p><p>Sirius snickered before turning away and taking one last whiff of his potion. One scent stood out unmistakably more than the others.</p><p>
  <em>The leaves of a wolfs-bane plant.</em>
</p><p>Sirius smiled to himself as he felt his heart skip a beat as it often did these days.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Some wolfstar and angsty Lily for y'all &lt;3</b>
</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>You can also find this one shot on my Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/user/QueenHoneeBee<br/>Or at: https://www.wattpad.com/story/205167351-marauders-one-shots</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>